Review: Waypoint Kangaroo, by Curtis C. Chen

[Russ Allbery]

Waypoint Kangaroo
by Curtis C. Chen

Series:    Kangaroo #1
Publisher: Thomas Dunne
Copyright: June 2016
ISBN:      1-250-08179-3
Format:    Kindle
Pages:     312

Disclaimer: Curtis was a classmate of mine at Stanford and part of the
same social circle. That was a surprisingly long time ago.

Kangaroo is a spy (and, for this book, you should think James Bond).
Agency training, fake identities, lots of gadgets, grumpy yet
ridiculously competent support staff... the typical package. But
Kangaroo also has a special power, which is the entire reason he ended
up in the position he has. He's apparently the only person in the world
who can open the pocket: a hole into another dimension, which can
function as infinite storage and quite a bit more.

Waypoint Kangaroo opens with the tail end of a mission and Kangaroo in
action, as an introduction to Kangaroo's first-person narrative voice,
job, and the capabilities of the pocket. But the real story starts when
Kangaroo is sent on vacation. The office is being audited, Kangaroo
hasn't had time off basically ever, and his boss insists on a trip to
Mars on the space equivalent of a cruise ship. No work. An expense
account. Just relax and have fun.

Kangaroo isn't sure he knows how to not work. Or how to avoid boredom
when trying hard to not work. It leads to probably ill-advised
decisions like falling in love at first glance with the chief engineer,
or going on entirely unauthorized spacewalks in the middle of the
night. It's very lucky for him that the captain of this commercial
cruise ship appears to also work for his agency. And it's good for his
inability to stop working that there's a murder on board.

For a first novel, this is refreshingly free of a lot of first novel
problems. It's lean, well-structured, easy to follow, moves right
along, and doesn't feel over-stuffed with exposition or world-building.
There's an interplanetary war in the past background, and of course a
lot of loving description of the precise mechanics of the pocket and
the tricks with momentum and retrieval Kangaroo can do with it, but the
book never falls into too much explanation. And the plot is
satisfyingly twisty. It's an action story plot, to be clear: don't
expect deep puzzles or complex deduction. But there are enough players
and hidden motives to keep things interesting.

The downside is that I didn't like Kangaroo very much. He's a bit of an
ass.

Some of this goes with the spy novel territory, and some of it is good
(if occasionally grating) characterization. Kangaroo doesn't know how
to turn off the part of his brain that makes everything a mission. But
his flippant, know-it-all attitude got on my nerves after a book full
of first-person narration, and while (full credit to Curtis here) the
romance in this book is clearly consensual and stays well away from the
creepy romances so common in spy stories, the love-at-first sight bits
and some of Kangaroo's awkward reactions provoked more eye-rolling than
enjoyment. A lot of this is just personal taste, but that's the peril
of books told with first-person narration. The reader has to really
like the protagonist to spend a whole book in their head. If that
relationship doesn't click, the supporting characters have a harder
time salvaging the experience.

Waypoint Kangaroo avoids the problem of too many loving descriptions of
guns, partly because it's a spy novel and instead has loving
descriptions of spy equipment in a future that supports implanted
devices. I think there was a smidgen too much of this, but it was
within genre conventions and spy stuff is more interesting than guns.
But (and I admit that this is probably idiosyncratic), it also had way
too many loving descriptions of alcohol and one drunk scene. I don't
care if I ever read another book with a drunk protagonist (particularly
first-person), and I care considerably less about alcohol than I do
about spy equipment or guns.

That said, I still liked this well enough that I'll probably buy the
sequel. (No cliffhangers; Waypoint Kangaroo is a complete story. But
this is a character who could easily support a long episodic series.)
The pocket is a neat gimmick, the world background is at least mildly
interesting, and some of the supporting characters were excellent.
(Particularly the security chief and the engineer.) I might even warm
to Kangaroo over time if subsequent stories stay more on his creative
fast-talking rather than his drinking and awkward romances.

I don't think this is quite good enough for me to recommend it, but if
you're in the mood for a light and fast-moving first-person Bond-style
story with science fiction trappings, it does deliver.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Reviewed: 2017-10-25

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)              <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>